Madumabisa

Madumabisa is a genus of dicynodont, an extinct type of therapsid (a group which modern mammals also belong to), that lived in eastern Africa during the Late Permian period. Fossils of Madumabisa have been discovered in what is now Zambia from rocks of the Madumabisa Mudstone Formation, which it is named after. The type and only known species is M. opainion, named in 2025. Madumabisa is an early member of the family Lystrosauridae and a close relative of the well-known and highly specialised Lystrosaurus. The specialised morphology of Lystrosaurus is only incipiently developed in Madumabisa, and it appears transitional between Lystrosaurus and more typical dicynodontoids like Dicynodon. Madumabisa is one of the most abundant species found in the upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation, demonstrating that lystrosaurids were (at least in some places) major components of late Permian ecosystems that were already thriving prior to the end-Permian mass extinction, rather than only flourishing in its aftermath with the extinction of other dicynodonts.